Daughter of a Criminal

The Four Champions

Harry sat there, aware that every head in the Great Hall had turned to look at him. He was stunned. He felt numb. He was surely dreaming. He had not heard correctly. There was no applause. A buzzing, as though of angry bees, was starting to fill the Hall; some students were standing up to get a better look at Harry as he sat, frozen, in his seat. Up at the top table, Professor McGonagall had got to her feet and swept past Ludo Bagman and Professor Karkaroff to whisper urgently to Professor Dumbledore, who bent his ear toward her, frowning slightly. Harry turned to Ron and Hermione; beyond them, he saw the long Gryffindor table all watching him, openmouthed. "I didn't put my name in," Harry said blankly. "You know I didn't." Both of them stared just as blankly back. H THE FOUR CHAMPIONS Â' 273 Â' At the top table, Professor Dumbledore had straightened up, nodding to Professor McGonagall. "Harry Potter!" he called again. "Harry! Up here, if you please!" "Go on," Hermione whispered, giving Harry a slight push. Harry got to his feet, trod on the hem of his robes, and stumbled slightly. He set off up the gap between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. It felt like an immensely long walk; the top table didn't seem to be getting any nearer at all, and he could feel hundreds and hundreds of eyes upon him, as though each were a searchlight. The buzzing grew louder and louder. After what seemed like an hour, he was right in front of Dumbledore, feeling the stares of all the teachers upon him. "Well . . . through the door, Harry," said Dumbledore. He wasn't smiling. Harry moved off along the teachers' table. Hagrid was seated right at the end. He did not wink at Harry, or wave, or give any of his usual signs of greeting. He looked completely astonished and stared at Harry as he passed like everyone else. Harry went through the door out of the Great Hall
Time Skip
Harry walked resolutely over to the portrait hole, pushed it open, climbed out of it, and found himself face-to-face with Ann
"Hello," she said, holding up a stack of toast, which she was carrying in a napkin. "I brought you this. . . . Want to go for a walk?"
"Good idea," said Harry gratefully. They went downstairs, crossed the entrance hall quickly without looking in at the Great Hall, and were soon striding across the lawn toward the lake, where the Durmstrang ship was moored, reflected blackly in the water. It was a chilly morning, and they kept moving, munching their toast, as Harry told Ann exactly what had happened after he had left the Gryffindor table the night before. To his immense relief, Hermione accepted his story without question.
"My and Hermione both believe it wasn't you, Harry," she said when he'd finished telling her about the scene in the chamber off the Hall. "I mean the look on your face when Dumbledore read out your name! But the question is, who did put it in? Because Moody's right, Harry . . . I don't think any student could have done it . . . they'd never be able to fool the Goblet, or get over Dumbledore's â€""
"Have you seen Ron, or Hermione?" Harry interrupted.
"Well Hermiones studying," said Ann before she hesitated. "Erm . . . I have seen. . . he was at breakfast," she said.
"Does he still think I entered myself?"
"Well . . . no, I don't think so . . . not exactly," said Ann awkwardly.
"What's that supposed to mean, 'not exactly'?"
"I mean, isn't it obvious?" Ann said despairingly. "He's jealous!"
"Jealous?" Harry said incredulously. "Jealous of what? He wants to make a prat of himself in front of the whole school, does he?"
"Look," said Ann patiently, "it's always you who gets all the attention, you know it is. I know it's not your fault," she added quickly, seeing Harry open his mouth furiously. "I know you don't ask for it . . . but â€" well â€" you know, Ron's got all those brothers to compete against at home, and you're his best friend, and you're really famous â€" he's always shunted to one side whenever people see you, and he puts up with it, and he never mentions it, but I suppose this is just one time too many. . ."
"Great," said Harry bitterly. "Really great. Tell him from me I'll swap any time he wants. Tell him from me he's welcome to it. . . . People gawping at my forehead everywhere I go. . . ." "I'm not telling him anything," Ann said shortly. "Tell him yourself. It's the only way to sort this out."
"I'm not running around after him trying to make him grow up!" Harry said, so loudly that several owls in a nearby tree took flight in alarm. "Maybe he'll believe I'm not enjoying myself once I've got my neck broken or â€""
"That's not funny," said Ann quietly. "That's not funny at all." She looked extremely anxious. "Harry, Hermoine and I've been thinking â€" you know what we've got to do, don't you? Straight away, the moment we get back to the castle?"
"Yeah, give Ron a good kick up the â€""
"Write to my dad. You've got to tell him what's happened. He asked you and me to keep him posted on everything that's going on at Hogwarts. . . . It's almost as if he expected something like this to happen. I brought some parchment and a quill out with me â€""
"Come off it," said Harry, looking around to check that they couldn't be overheard, but the grounds were quite deserted. "He came back to the country just because my scar twinged. He'll probably come bursting right into the castle if I tell him someone's entered me in the Triwizard Tournament â€""
"Has it ever occurred to you that I'm just as worried about my dad going back to jail?"Ann asked. Harry just stared.
"But-," he started
"Nevermind, he'd want you to tell him," said Ann sternly. "He's going to find out anyway â€"" "How?"
"Harry, this isn't going to be kept quiet," said Ann, very seriously. "This tournament's famous, and you're famous. I'll be really surprised if there isn't anything in the Daily Prophet about you competing. . . . You're already in half the books about Voldermort, you know . . . and my dad would rather hear it from you, I know he would."
"Okay, okay, I'll write to him," said Harry, throwing his last piece of toast into the lake. They both stood and watched it floating there for a moment, before a large tentacle rose out of the water and scooped it beneath the surface. Then they returned to the castle.
"Whose owl am I going to use?" Harry said as they climbed the stairs. "He told me not to use Hedwig again."
"You can use Gray," said Ann. They went up to the Owlery Ann gave Harry a piece of parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink, then strolled around the long lines of perches, prepping Gray for flight by tying her own letter to him which she had already written, while Harry sat down against a wall and wrote his letter.
"Finished," he told Ann, getting to his feet and brushing straw off his robes. At this, Hedwig came fluttering down onto his shoulder and held out her leg. "I can't use you," Harry told her, looking around for the school owls. "I've got to use Gray. . ." Hedwig gave a very loud hoot and took off so suddenly that her talons cut into his shoulder. She kept her back to Harry all the time he was tying his letter to the leg of the large barn owl. When the barn owl had flown off, Harry reached out to stroke Hedwig, but she clicked her beak furiously and soared up into the rafters out of reach. "First Ron, then you," said Harry angrily. "This isn't my fault."
Time Skip
To make matters worse Harry and Ron weren't talking. Ann and Hermione sat between them during classes, making very forced conversation, but though both answered the two normally, and avoided making eye contact with each other. Harry thought he could have coped with the rest of the school's behavior if he could just have had Ron back as a friend, but he wasn't going to try and persuade Ron to talk to him if Ron didn't want to. Nevertheless, it was lonely with dislike pouring in on him from all sides. The only bright spot in his days was talking with Ann, even if it was something dumb like divination homework. Meanwhile there was no reply from Sirius, Hedwig was refusing to come anywhere near him, Professor Trelawney was predicting his death with even more certainty than usual, and he did so badly at Summoning Charms in Professor Flitwick's class that he was given extra homework â€" the only person to get any, apart from Neville.
"It's really not that difficult, Harry," Hermione tried to reassure him as they left Flitwick's class
"Speak for yourself," said Ann-Hermione had been making objects zoom across the room to her all lesson, as though she were some sort of weird magnet for board dusters, wastepaper baskets, and lunascopes.
"You just weren't concentrating properly â€"" said Hermione ignoring Ann.
"Wonder why that was," said Harry darkly as
Cedric Diggory walked past, waving to Ann, who smiled back.
"Still â€" never mind, eh? Double Potions to look forward to this afternoon. . . ." Ann joked. Double Potions was always a horrible experience, but these days it was nothing short of torture. Being shut in a dungeon for an hour and a half with Snape and the Slytherins, all of whom seemed determined to punish Harry as much as possible for daring to become school champion, was about the most unpleasant thing Harry could imagine. He had already struggled through one Friday's worth, with Ann sitting next to him intoning "ignore them, ignore them, ignore them" under her breath, and he couldn't see why today should be any better. When he, Ann and Hermoine arrived at Snape's dungeon after lunch, they found the Slytherins waiting outside, each and every one of them wearing a large badge on the front of his or her robes. For one wild moment Harry thought they were S.P.E.W. badges â€" then he saw that they all bore the same message, in luminous red letters that burnt brightly in the dimly lit underground passage:
SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY-
THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION
"Like them, Potter?" said Malfoy loudly as Harry approached. "And this isn't all they do â€" look!" He pressed his badge into his chest, and the message upon it vanished, to be replaced by another one, which glowed green:
POTTER STINKS
The Slytherins howled with laughter. Each of them pressed their badges too, until the message POTTER STINKS was shining brightly all around Harry. He felt the heat rise in his face and neck.
"Oh very funny," Ann said sarcastically to Pansy Parkinson and her gang of Slytherin girls, who were laughing harder than anyone,
"Yeah, real witty." said Hermoine. Ron was standing against the wall with Dean and Seamus. He wasn't laughing, but he wasn't sticking up for Harry either.
"Want one, Granger?" said Malfoy, holding out a badge to Hermione. "I've got loads. But don't touch my hand, now. I've just washed it, you see; don't want a Mudblood sliming it up." "Shut it Malfoy," said Ann
"Must be hard being an ugly blood traitor, it's true you're more burly than Hagrid," said Malfoy. Ann went red. Some of the anger Harry had been feeling for days and days seemed to burst through a dam in his chest. He had reached for his wand before he'd thought what he was doing. People all around them scrambled out of the way, backing down the corridor. "Harry!" Hermione said warningly.
"Go on, then, Potter," Malfoy said quietly, drawing out his own wand. "Moody's not here to look after you now â€" do it, if you've got the guts â€"" For a split second, they looked into each other's eyes, then, at exactly the same time, both acted.
"Furnunculus!" Harry yelled.
"Densaugeo!" screamed Malfoy. Jets of light shot from both wands, hit each other in midair, and ricocheted off at angles â€" Harry's hit Goyle in the face, and Malfoy's hit Hermione. Goyle bellowed and put his hands to his nose, where great ugly boils were springing up â€" Hermione, whimpering in panic, was clutching her mouth. Ann ran over her face still red and inspected Hermoine.
"Hermione!" Ron had hurried forward to see what was wrong with her; Harry turned and saw Ron and Ann slowly dragging Hermione's hand away from her face. It wasn't a pretty sight. Hermione's front teeth â€" already larger than average â€" were now growing at an alarming rate; she was looking more and more like a beaver as her teeth elongated, past her bottom lip, toward her chin â€" panic-stricken, she felt them and let out a terrified cry.
"And what is all this noise about?" said a soft, deadly voice. Snape had arrived. The Slytherins clamored to give their explanations; Snape pointed a long yellow finger at Malfoy and said, "Explain."
"Potter attacked me, sir â€""
"We attacked each other at the same time!" Harry shouted.
"â€" and he hit Goyle â€" look â€"" Snape examined Goyle, whose face now resembled something that would have been at home in a book on poisonous fungi.
"Hospital wing, Goyle," Snape said calmly.
"Malfoy got Hermione!" Ron said. "Look!" He forced Hermione to show Snape her teeth â€" she was doing her best to hide them with her hands, though this was difficult as they had now grown down past her collar. Pansy Parkinson and the other Slytherin girls were doubled up with silent giggles, pointing at Hermione from behind Snape's back, until Ann gave them a warning look. Snape looked coldly at Hermione, then said,
"I see no difference." Hermione let out a whimper; her eyes filled with tears, she turned on her heel and ran, ran all the way up the corridor and out of sight, Ann sighed and ran after Hermoine.
"Hermoine?" Ann asked. Hermoine came out from under the covers of her bed. "Come on, let's get you to the hospital wing," she said. And with that the two headed to Madam Pomfrey. Ann stayed for a few hours until Madam Pomfrey shooed her off.
Ann walked out only to run into Cedric Diggory of all people.
"Ann?"
"Oh hey Cedric," Ann said smiling
"What are you doing down here?"
"Just dropping of Hermione,"
"Oh really? What happened?"
"Malfoy,"
"God that little git if we were in the same year I'd have been expelled," Cedric said causing Ann to chuckle.
"Well I should be getting back to my common room," Ann said
"Here I'll walk you,"
"Oh you-,"
"Come on let me do the gentlemanly thing here and walk you back,"
"Alright," Ann agreed and the pair had a very enjoyable walk joking and talking like a pair of old friends.
Time Skip
Harry went down to dinner. Hermione wasn't there â€" according to Ann she was still in the hospital wing having her teeth fixed.
"So what happened?" she asked
"Me and Ron got detention," Harry told her
"Yikes, but maybe yo-"
"I'm not interested in patching things with Ron, he's the one whos-"
"Acting childish I know, but really you should at least try to talk to him," said Ann
"Fine, for you, I'll give it a shot," said Harry. And with that they finished dinner and headed back to the common room where Ann helped Harry with his Summoning Charms homework as Hermoine was still disposed in the hospital wing.